NEWS: Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen: The Porno Buddhist

CULTURE: Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen: The Porno Buddhist

It has recently been brought to my attention that I am now apparently known in Buddhist circles as the “Porno Buddhist.” This, it seems, is a source of great humor as well since, I am told, these Buddhists enjoy laughing at me. And how, you might ask, did I come across this information? It’s a bit of a long story. But you might enjoy it.

Traditionally a Buddhist teacher, when he gets older, will appoint a successor. This has been going on since Buddha’s day. Generally speaking, a Buddhist teacher might ordain a number of students and even give what they call “Dharma Transmission” to several of them. Dharma Transmission is a little hard to explain. But it means that, in your teacher’s eyes, you’ve gone a bit beyond being a run of the mill monk and have an extra special understanding that the teacher recognizes. There are other reasons transmission is given. But that’s all beside the point. Though a teacher may give any number of these ordinations and transmissions, traditionally he or she will only appoint one successor.

Recently my teacher, Gudo Nishijima, decided to appoint me as his successor. That might sound pretty cool. But actually it made me feel kind of weird and apprehensive. See cuz I’ve seen the way these things work. As soon as the teacher appoints a successor, the other people who think that they should have been the successor get all mad about it. And, of course, things get more complicated if the teacher dies before announcing his or her decision. Luckily my teacher is at least still very much alive and well.

This stuff is certainly not unique to Buddhism. But it’s highly disappointing to find that it exists just as much within communities who call themselves Buddhists as it does anywhere else. You’d expect better. I expect better. This kind of behavior is non-Buddhism plain and simple. But in the real world, this is how things go.

So I hemmed and hawed some about accepting the appointment because I didn’t know if I wanted to face the inevitable onslaught. But I decided that it was better to just get it over with. So I told Nishijima Roshi it was fine if he wanted to make the news public.

As soon as the announcement was made people started bitching about it. I touched on this a little in this article. But rather than dissipating quickly as I’d hoped, the shit just keeps getting flung into the fan. The most recent thing has been the announcement that I am the Porno Buddhist. I assume that’s because I write these columns for you nice people at Suicide Girls.

Now I don’t want to present myself as poor little innocent Bradley just minding his own business and everybody gets mad at me for no reason. I knew that when I chose to write for Suicide Girls, this kind of stuff was going to come up. But I will say that I did not expect it from people who used to present themselves as my friends. That’s pretty sad. Plus I really do expect better of people who call themselves Buddhists. Anyway, they are all off my Christmas card list, you better believe that!

And I should also point out that this is not at all unique to the lineage I belong to. In fact, I'd say, as these things go we're dealing with it better than a lot of others. Way better. At least so far. Most of the time these things are carefully hidden from the public and they can be far more brutal.

Be that as it may, I want to address my role as the Porno Buddhist. When this accusation was made, my teacher recommended my “friends” to study a chapter in Dogen’s Shobogenzo called “Flowers in Space.” It’s like the old Muppet Show skit “Pigs in Space,” only with flowers instead of pigs. He said it related well to the Buddhist attitude toward regulating sexual desire.

I won’t try and get into the whole chapter here. You can go buy volume three of Shobogenzo at Amazon.com if you want to read it all. There’s one line in particular that Dogen quotes from an old Chinese Zen Master. It goes like this:

By eliminating disturbances we redouble the disease.

Dogen explains this by saying: “We have not been free of disease hitherto; we have had the Buddha bug and the patriarch bug. Intellectual excluding now adds to the disease and augments the disease. The very moment itself of eliminating is inevitably disturbance. They are simultaneous and are beyond simultaneousness. Disturbances always include the fact of [trying to] eliminate them.”

We all have sexual desires. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that. We need to have sexual desire to survive as a species. Neither Dogen nor Buddha himself would have even been born were it not for their parents’ sexual desires. If you want to believe your Savior was born without someone having had sex first, go ahead. Anyway, the line above doesn’t even specifically relate to sexual desire but to the more general concept of disturbance.

Lots of people try to establish some kind of spiritual purity. In order to do so they often try as hard as they can to eliminate anything that might disturb that purity. But Dogen says that, “excluding adds to the disease and augments the disease.” Furthermore he says that, “the very moment itself of eliminating is inevitably disturbance.” There is only one reason we call something a disturbance, because we wish it wasn’t there. “Disturbances always include the fact of trying to eliminate them.” Ain’t it the truth!

This is the real key to understanding the Buddhist way. Buddhist practice seeks to expose everything. That is what we’re doing when sitting Zazen. It may look like nothing. But we are exposing ourselves to ourselves. Lots of us who do this don’t like what we see. But we persevere until every rock is unturned and every squishy ugly little bug underneath has seen the light of day.

In our contemporary world, no one can hope to avoid being bombarded by images of objects of desire. For those of you reading this, such images are available 24 hours a day at the touch of a button -- even quicker if you’re a subscriber! How do we live in such a world?

This is a vital question. But like all the most vital questions it’s not one that I or anybody else can answer for you. You have to discover your own way. The only thing I can offer is the advice that you have to constantly seek balance. When things are too exciting, that’s a problem. Every high has a corresponding low that goes with it. You don’t believe that, I bet. Most of us don’t. We think we’ll someday find the high that lasts forever. I can’t stop you from trying. But I can say without question that it doesn’t exist. It is not in the nature of things for such a high to exist anywhere.

Those who hope for purity and righteousness always try and destroy that which disturbs them. But they’re looking in the wrong place. They think the disturbance comes from outside of themselves. I guess my Dharma Brothers think that what disturbs them is located over there in an apartment in West Hollywood dressed in golden robes and waving a stick while surrounded by plastic monster toys and dozens of luscious Suicide Girls (oh how I wish!). But I have my doubts. Whenever I looked carefully at the things that disturbed me most deeply I never found them outside. They were always right here. And that’s where they’ll always be found.

*****

I’ll be doing a talk and book signing on Thursday August 9, 2007 at the Many Paths Bookstore in North Hollywood.

Then I’ll be in New York City August 26-28 at the following locations:

• Sunday August 26, 2007- 7 PM at Bluestockings Radical Books on the Lower East Side
• August 27, 2007 at 7 PM at The Interdepedence Project at Lila Center 302 Bowery at Houston (this will be the most like a formal lecture among all the NYC appearances)
• August 28, 2007 at 7:30 PM Barnes & Noble in Greenwich Village

Then I’ll be in Montreal on August 30, 2007 at 7 PM at McGill University’s Education/Counselling Psychology Department 3700 Rue McTavish Room 233

All of the above events are open to the public. So y’all come out now!

Brad Warner is the author of Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up!. He maintains a blog about Buddhist stuff. If you're in Southern California and you want to try some Zazen for yourself, he has a group that meets every Saturday in Santa Monica. This is open to anyone who wants to show up.

this article is a little ego-y for a buddhist. Why are all the articles just defeding your buddhism? Pop-culture cowboy buddhism is lame.

As opposed to what kind of Buddhism? Fire-cracker ninja-star? Ineffable horde of gravitation poppy? What are you talking about? I deride your comments because I've just spent all day being really pissed off, first at lots of other people, then at myself.

This article, along with a couple issues of Alan Moore's Promethea and Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, blended with some ...And You Will Know Us and Radiohead were of benefit to me today in recognizing that 1, I'm pissed off because I made some mistakes and I have to pay for them, and 2, that the natural reaction to the situation is to get pissed off. But I feel better because I stayed away from people, the ones I care about anyway, until I calmed down, and slowly but surely I am learning.

So what if he is defending his Buddhism? What are you doing?



I can't wait for those New York Readings!

Dude, be proud to be The Porno Buddhiist!

SHOW US YER TITS!!!!

Promethea and The Invisibles, there is no better possible ontological speedball. Cheers.

It's a good article, but anyone brushing it off as just Brad defending his position here is kind of missing the forest for the trees. What I got out of it mostly the same thing as his article following the shootings at V-Tech, that people are sharpening their anger and frustrations into sharp points that face out and cut into the people around them instead of sharpening the point inwards to question and reinvent themselves instead of trying to bend the outside world to their will.

It's like Mister Six says; There is no Enemy. We are not at war. This is a rescue mission.

Check out true Buddhism at www.buddhanet.net!

Somewhere, someplace in the Buddhist cosmos, Buddha Shakyamuni is rolling over in his nirvana . . . not just about a "porno buddhist," but about the incredible self-service of it all. The root of Buddhism isn't "to expose everything" (although I guess that is certainly what the girls here do!), but to truly see things for what they are (and aren't). This is certainly pornography, which is from the Greek "images" (graphy) of "sex" (porn). It really must be what Buddha called the "misuse of sex" which is part of the eight fold path, in the five step moral code. (No killing, no stealing, no lying, no misusing sex and no intoxicants.) Of course, neither do I call myself a Buddhist either. That route is too hard and too straight for me, hard core Zen notwithstanding. (Also, how can Zen be hard core?) Also, Buddhists are supposed to have equanamity in the face of criticism--no pushing people off your Christmas card list. Brad, you can't have it both ways, can you? Forgive and forget, Brad. Remember: Everything is impermanent and unsatisfying. See the Four Noble Truths on that one!

WTF. If practiced for years every way you can think and read every book there is. Which is a lie. Brad is the most honest teacher there is. He has an ego because he's a human being and has never pretended other wise. "Pop-culture Buddhism" is exactly what he is against. Any references he makes are to the modern world and completely normal. Pretending we live in some other kind of pure world is false. Pretending you have no ego is false. Pretending you have answers that can be formed into words are false, which is simply what he says over and over.

This is the ideal form for Buddhism. It targets people not looking for Buddhism and keeps away those who judge surfaces, do not recognize non-duality, and have a problem with naked chicks, which there is obviously (to the enlightened ;p) nothing wrong with.

Bodhisattva this Bitch! That's right Brad smile and speak in that dreamy otherworldly voice, too. We love that one. Oh and make sure you check out the REAL zen at www.REALZen(forreal.IMeanIt.Fersherfersher.com Take care of me--It's all your fault!! You Pornogragher!! I bet you feel real bad now Brad. Worship Satan! Kill Puppies!

The way I see it, in a changing society religion has to change too. Isn't the Catholic church having lots of problems because they can't reach out to the youth of the world who are sick or constraints and old fashioned dogma? This is the same conceptt, Brad is able to transcend the gap and bring Buddhism to a demographic who would normally not be interested in any kind of religion (the alt porn, indie/punk/metal demographic i guess). I would wager lthat a big part of the reason that Brad was named successor in the first place was his teacher saw how Brad can get the message across and is probably the best choice to get Buddhism more exposure and followers it would normally not receive. I say do what you need to do...

This has the makings for a split on the magnitude of the Shia-Sunni disagreement. Congrats; you're in for a good ride.

Hey Brad,
Since you're the Porno-Buddhist do you think you get some good nudie shots of those hotties who wake up Mothra? Or better yet, maybe Mothra shtupping Godzilla. (I bet you could get Gammorha doin' some really kinky shit) Kill Satan! Worship Puppies!

Your articles always strike me as some sort of 21st-Century ad-sponsored update of old parables or teachings. As such I'm always riveted to your writings.

Feel free to trek out to Toronto or Hamilton (or environs) sometime for a book signing. I'll be in line somewhere.

This is pretty classic - I've never heard of a Lama who *didn't* set up conflicts like this. Generally speaking, when my Lama does something like this, he's working you. Either your ego is too big, or too small. Maybe you have a project to do, and he's pushing you into it. Maybe it's nothing to do with you, and one of his other students needs to have a massive klesha attack in order to see what needs to leave his mind. Usually it's some combination of all of these...

Good luck with it. FWIW, I don't think of you as the Porno Buddhist. I think of you as the Zen Buddhist who writes stuff that seems vaguely buddhist on SG. HTH!

How are these different? It is like saying I can only reach China by traveling West, when, in fact, the fastest route, from New York, is to fly north, across the pole. How, you ask? Because we live on a globe, not on a spectrum. From Latvia you'd fly East. From Siberia, south.

It's the same with Buddhism, there is no spectrum. Why is your Buddhism bigger than my Buddhism, why does your Buddhism have to be bigger than my Buddhism? Can't all of our Buddhisms be big together. It's one of the fundamental aspects that I admire in Buddhism, it has shown far more capacity and willingness to grow and to accept, to accommodate, than any other system.

Fuck it says the little wanking Buddha from Liverpool, "Nothing ends that isn't something else starting."

I don't imagine that anyone who read any of Brad's articles here would find that they had much of anything to do with pornography; they probably wouldn't even know that they were from this sort of website if they weren't told that. Assuming they were reading them somewhere else of course.

If I recall correctly Buddhist proscriptions against sexual misconduct were against very specific things like having sex too close to a temple. Being on a website thats's full of harmless erotic imagery is not something that's going to come under the heading of harmful sexual behaviors.

People including me have a lot of trouble not being judgemental as all hell. Maybe it's a weird paradox but you could say that being a buddhist you have to try to let go of being right about things. It reminds me something of how John Nash (the Beautiful Mind guy) says he still sees things that aren't there, but despite that you can choose not to indulge in certain habits of mind. So you might not be able to shake off the notion that your way of doing things is right and another's way is wrong, but you can choose not to let this be the directing force of your thoughts and actions. Which is not to say that you should accept everything that everyone does and never critically examine or criticise anything, but in doing so one must strive as much as possible not to regard oneself and one's own ideas as the axis around which everything else revolves.

Okay: Here is what I mean. This web site is not an artistic, community-based non-profit entity. It is a for-profit enterprise, trading on the currency of naked human flesh, ultra hipster piercing and tattoos not withstanding. It is a sex business. We need to see it for what it is. I don't have any problem with it myself, but let's not kid ourselves about it either: that is exactly what it is and that would not be cool with Buddha. It's not the path to (or from) the Bodhi Tree in Northern India. (I'm not saying I agree with Buddha, by the way. I am not a Buddhist, though, and have never claimed to be.) Buddhism really does have something to say about sexuality on a few different levels and it is more than not having sex near a temple. Generating income from exploiting human sexuality is a no-no. It's not considered a "right livelihood" which is supposed to center on providing things others in the community need - and digital T and A doesn't count.

Brad is right that we all have a sexual nature. And Brad does indeed have an ego, because he is a person. But things aren't that simple. Buddhism doesn't buy into either lines of reasoning and Brad (and his defenders) are disingenuous to ignore that. Sexual desires are just lustful impulse to transcend, not profit from! Remember, the core Buddhist doctrine (not dogma) is the very concept of NO SELF. There really is NO SELF to have an EGO about! And anger about a criticism is also pure delusion as well. He himself is suffering for it. After all, Brad decided to write for a sex website. He himself said that knew the criticism was coming but complains when it comes, expecting Buddhists to be "better" than the run of the mill whatever the rest of us are. Brad wants his cake and to eat it too. I'm sorry, but that is a karmic impossibility. Just that simple.

How do you know? And aside from that, do you think no teacher should ever go to a "dirty" place to teach? Do you think Buddha would be opposed to reaching out to people working in the sex trade?

You say you're not a Buddhist, but you claim to be an expert on Buddhism, even to speak for Buddha... The only way to permanently "transcend your desires" is to take the big dirt nap. FYI.

That's a pretty common misunderstanding. Anatta is a subtle idea, not as simple as you make it out to be. See Wikipedia for a better explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta

It's cute the way you throw around words like suffering and delusion.

Brad said he expected criticism, but just not from the particular people it came from. I think it's pretty reasonable for him to expect a certified Buddhist priest to be above petty name calling.

First:

1) I have studied Buddhism for about five years and I have a long interest in Eastern thought. I don't have to be a Buddhist to be knowledgeable about it. That's just foolish. And a personal attack, not an argument.

2) I am not saying one can't go to a dirty place to teach. I am saying don't bitch when you get heat for it.

3) As for not being able to "transcend" sexual impulses without dying, that's the WHOLE POINT OF BUDDHISM. You don't have to die to it. In fact, dying doesn't do anything to get past desires--that's the point of the whole of the round of being and why people come back in life after life: because they DON'T TRANSCEND IT! Lustful desires -- like greed and anger -- are to be transcended.

4) I don't misunderstand the concept of "anatta." I don't say Brad (or any of us) don't exist. But we are all in a state of flux and only exist relative to the world around us. Getting to attached to our ego-centric desires (like being above criticism for writing for a porn site) leads to Brad's misery. Witness his editing his Christmas Card in a fit of pique.

5) I don't throw around words about anger being a delusion. (And come now, another personal attack, Julesa?) Go read Shantideva. He said it, not me!

6) Brad didn't expect criticism from Buddhist for writing for a porn site from Buddhists? WHO DID HE THINK WOULD BE CRITICAL? The models? Hugh Hefner? E! Channel?

Like I said, karma is a bitch. QED.

I'm 100% certain Brad expected many Buddhists to be critical. I think he didn't expect this one particular Buddhist priest to start making petty personal attacks.

If your idea of the "whole point of Buddhism" is to "transcend desires" then I want no part of your Buddhism. I place a high value on all my desires. They are a fabulous source of motivation and help me live a full life. I don't try to fool myself into believing that it is possible to completely "master" them, and I wouldn't want to. I doubt your idea of Buddhism is very close to what the Buddha actually taught, but I think we'll have to just agree to disagree on that point.

Julesa: My idea of Buddhism is not close to what the Buddha taught according to you. So what did Buddha teach? Cherish wants and desires and place a high value on them? Cherish egos and right to be offended?

If Brad is a Buddhist, he needs to just let go of his beef with the priest. Why? Just to show that you're not the only with access to Buddhist scriptures, here is a quote from the first page of the Dhammapada, a key from the Pali cannon, translated by Glenn Wallis:

"He berated me! He hurt me! He beat me! He deprived me!" For those who hold such grudges, hostility is not appeased. . .

"He berated me! He hurt me! He beat me! He deprived me!" For those who forgo such grudges, hostility ceases.

So who has been complaining about being berated . . . and whose hostility is not appeased? Can't be a Buddhist and complain about being berated.

As far as transcending desires, here is a quote from the same book a few pages later:

"Just as rain piereces
a poorly roofed house,
so passion pierces
an uncultivated mind.

Just as rain cannot pierce
a well-roofed house;
so passion cannot pierce
a well-cultivated mind."

(verses 13 and 14).

Here is a quote from the Majjhima-Nikaya, where Buddha explains his philosophy:

"If namely, when perceiving a visible form, a sound, odor, taste, bodily contact or idea in mind, the object is pleasant, one is attracted, and if unpleasant, one is repelled. Thus, whatever, kind of feeling one experiences - pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent - one approves of and cherishes the feeling and clings to it; and while dong so, lust springs up; but lust for feelings means clinging to existence; and on clinging to exitence depends on the process of becoming; on the process of becoming depends future birth; and dependent on birth are decay and eath, sorrow, lamentation, pain and grief and despair. Thus arises the whole of mass of suffering." (38) That's a straight quote from the Buddha himself, right from his preaching.

Idea in mind is the Pali idiom for DESIRE. Of course, it is natural to have wants and desires for a "householder" but they need to be channelled and, yes, mastered, so that the Buddhist is their master and not their servant. And teachers are called to a higher realm even.

One of Buddha's first sermons, the Fire Sermon, gives the same point. The last line is: "Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is depleted, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.' " (Source: http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebsut026.htm, translation by Bhikku Thanissaro.) Disspassionate means with quenched desire. That's the point.

Normally, I have better things to do than quote Buddhist scriptures to people I don't know. But really, I can't stand the whole "agree to disagree" stuff when you are simply, factually WRONG about what Buddhism teaches. None of which is to say I disagree with your placing a high value on your desires. It's your right and your perogative, just as Brad's getting all pissy about gossip is too. It's just does square with Buddhism is all.

I think there is some confusion about the phrase "transcending desire." I think that's a poor choice of words. I think it's important to be aware of desire, and it's important not to blindly surrender to desire. But I don't believe any real human being permanently transcends desire. I generally don't argue Buddhist scripture online, and I think I've said all I intend to say. You're entitled to your own interpretations. Why did Bodhidharma come to the East?

I know better than to try answer a Zen Koan. Peace.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Has-Bodhi-Dharma-Left-East/dp/B0000203Z5/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/102-9217863-7277709